FAR 91.103, "Preflight action," begins by stating, "Each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight." The regulation provides specific rules on meeting that preflight action requirement in two identified areas: First, for flights under IFR and flights not in the vicinity of an airport, and second, for runway lengths and takeoff and landing distances at airports of intended use. But, before we get into the specifics, let's review more carefully what the general language of the regulation might entail.
Early in our pilot training we learn to become thoroughly familiar with the route of flight we plan to take, including the boundaries of airspace and the location of obstructions. We learn to become familiar with the radio frequencies we may need along our flight to contact air traffic control or to obtain updated flight information. We are also taught to contact an FAA flight service station or some other aviation safety data system (such as the personal-computer-based DUAT). Flight service and DUAT can provide weather information, applicable notices to airmen (notams), and any other time-critical information that may restrict the operation of our flight and which we may not otherwise be aware of from the current charts and aeronautical publications.
Let me take this opportunity to emphasize that notams may be communicated to us during our preflight briefings, and this may be our only avenue for obtaining this safety information that could directly affect the manner of our flight. That is because these notices are the FAA's way of disseminating essential safety information that may be of a temporary nature or may not have been available at the time of chart publication.
There are several different kinds of notams. For purposes of understanding our preflight obligations, it is most important to generally realize that notams exist and should be received and understood before takeoff in order for the pilot in command to remain in strict compliance with the preflight action regulation, even though the regulation does not specifically state that notams must be obtained. As the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) notes, "Notam information is that aeronautical information that could affect a pilot's decision to make a flight." And, in the preflight section of the AIM, the FAA advises that a pilot remind and prompt the briefer to provide all pertinent notam information. While the AIM is not regulatory in nature, the fact that it is made available to the pilot by the FAA, and that it "contains the fundamentals required in order to fly in the United States National Airspace System," may be used by the FAA to identify what is expected of a pilot in order to comply with the more "legal" language of a regulation.
Consequently, more often than not, when we see enforcement cases initiated by the FAA against pilots for violating a temporary flight restriction, we see a parallel allegation of the pilot's violation of the preflight action regulation. And the number of such scenarios has increased significantly with the dramatic increase in temporary flight restrictions since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
So you see, there is a rather large regulatory and safety burden placed on the pilot to discover and be acquainted with "all available information" concerning a flight, as broad a context as that term may encompass for any given flight. The regulation does go on to identify what "all available information" includes, but does not exclude what would otherwise generally apply to your flight. In some sense of the term, you may not know what "all available information" is until you see it.
Next month, we'll look as the specific actions that are identified in the regulation.
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